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| Bi-national gay couple celebrate Doma ruling's new freedoms | Bi-national gay couple celebrate Doma ruling's new freedoms |
| (3 months later) | |
| Brandon Perlberg, a New York lawyer, and his partner Benn Storey, a newspaper designer from the north of England, are among an estimated 36,000 couples for whom the supreme court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act paves the way for them to live together in the United States. | Brandon Perlberg, a New York lawyer, and his partner Benn Storey, a newspaper designer from the north of England, are among an estimated 36,000 couples for whom the supreme court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act paves the way for them to live together in the United States. |
| The couple, who met in London, lived together in New York for seven years before Storey's US visa ran out, and reluctantly decided to move to the UK in order to stay together two years ago. An American woman with a British husband would be able to petition for residency for him, but Doma, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, means that lesbian and gay couples are excluded from applying. Thousands of lesbian and gay couples each year were forced to separate, live in fear of deportation, or migrate with their partner to a nation whose immigration laws recognise their relationship. | The couple, who met in London, lived together in New York for seven years before Storey's US visa ran out, and reluctantly decided to move to the UK in order to stay together two years ago. An American woman with a British husband would be able to petition for residency for him, but Doma, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, means that lesbian and gay couples are excluded from applying. Thousands of lesbian and gay couples each year were forced to separate, live in fear of deportation, or migrate with their partner to a nation whose immigration laws recognise their relationship. |
| Doma does not automatically end these separations, but it is widely expected that the federal government will now move to end discrimination in the immigration system. | Doma does not automatically end these separations, but it is widely expected that the federal government will now move to end discrimination in the immigration system. |
| Perlberg, 35, whose high-earning New York law career included lecturing at the Bar Association, regular court appearances and editing a law review, spent almost a year unemployed, before finally getting a job as a consultant at an accounting firm. He is reluctant to discuss details of the loss in salary, but says he took a "substantial hit" and estimates the couple lost $100,000 in 2012, the year they moved to the UK, due to his unemployment, retraining fees, lawyers and relocation fees. | Perlberg, 35, whose high-earning New York law career included lecturing at the Bar Association, regular court appearances and editing a law review, spent almost a year unemployed, before finally getting a job as a consultant at an accounting firm. He is reluctant to discuss details of the loss in salary, but says he took a "substantial hit" and estimates the couple lost $100,000 in 2012, the year they moved to the UK, due to his unemployment, retraining fees, lawyers and relocation fees. |
| "It was absolutely terrible." Perlberg said. "There is having your life in America taken away from you and there's trying to start your life from scratch in another country. The first part was so difficult. Closing up the apartment that I owned, saying goodbye to high school friends, law school friends." | "It was absolutely terrible." Perlberg said. "There is having your life in America taken away from you and there's trying to start your life from scratch in another country. The first part was so difficult. Closing up the apartment that I owned, saying goodbye to high school friends, law school friends." |
| "No one gave me a job for 11 months. I did not anticipate how hard it would be. I sent out close to 200 resumes to jobs I was overwhelmingly overqualified for and got rejected for every single one because I didn't have London-based experience. We were both burning through savings." | "No one gave me a job for 11 months. I did not anticipate how hard it would be. I sent out close to 200 resumes to jobs I was overwhelmingly overqualified for and got rejected for every single one because I didn't have London-based experience. We were both burning through savings." |
| Perlberg and Storey, 31, who are engaged, had to swap their apartment in Gramercy, Manhattan, for a rental flat in Clapham, south London, and Perlberg has now embarked upon a gruelling series of UK law exams that will enable him to practice law in London. | Perlberg and Storey, 31, who are engaged, had to swap their apartment in Gramercy, Manhattan, for a rental flat in Clapham, south London, and Perlberg has now embarked upon a gruelling series of UK law exams that will enable him to practice law in London. |
| In New York, where he spent all of his professional life, having grown up in California, Perlberg was on his way to the sort of professional success he had always aspired to, but moving countries meant he was "pushed down to the bottom of the ladder." | In New York, where he spent all of his professional life, having grown up in California, Perlberg was on his way to the sort of professional success he had always aspired to, but moving countries meant he was "pushed down to the bottom of the ladder." |
| "What makes me burn the most was that this was a law passed by lawmakers who are not held accountable for it. There are 81 lawmakers in office who voted for Doma. It makes me angry." | "What makes me burn the most was that this was a law passed by lawmakers who are not held accountable for it. There are 81 lawmakers in office who voted for Doma. It makes me angry." |
| However, Perlberg said that he was also proud to be an American and to be part of a turning tide towards marriage equality in the US. He said: "At the same time, this is my moment. Between the government and the executive and the judiciary, all branches are looking at marriage equality and they are looking at immigration reform. While I have this feeling of being an exile, of being forced from my country, I have never had more vested in its future. I have never been more proud of calling myself an American." | However, Perlberg said that he was also proud to be an American and to be part of a turning tide towards marriage equality in the US. He said: "At the same time, this is my moment. Between the government and the executive and the judiciary, all branches are looking at marriage equality and they are looking at immigration reform. While I have this feeling of being an exile, of being forced from my country, I have never had more vested in its future. I have never been more proud of calling myself an American." |
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